Polwarth candidate disendorsed by ALP

ENIGMATIC Polwarth Labor candidate Joe Brown is believed to have been disendorsed by the ALP, only two months after he decided to stand for the party.

ENIGMATIC Polwarth Labor candidate Joe Brown is believed to have been disendorsed by the ALP, only two months after he decided to stand for the party.

The former firefighter was confirmed as the ALP candidate in April, declaring his political tilt through several social media websites.

But in the past few weeks, any mention of Mr Brown running as the Labor candidate in Polwarth has been wiped from both Twitter and Facebook.

The Standard contacted ALP state headquarters several times but calls went unanswered.

Mr Brown was also contacted via telephone and through social media but did not respond.

Unusually for any political candidate, Mr Brown was exceptionally reticent and refused to make any public statements during his two months in the electoral arena.

Only two candidates have declared their intention to run for the Coalition-held electorate — Liberal MP Terry Mulder and Greens candidate Simon Northeast.

Mr Mulder holds the seat on a massive 13 per cent margin after increasing his share of the vote at the 2010 state election against Labor candidate Brian Crook.

Union organiser Darren Cheeseman also stood as the Polwarth Labor candidate at the 2006 state election, a year before his success at a federal level in Corangamite.

Mr Brown first made headlines two years ago after Parks Victoria decided not to rehire the contract firefighter for the 2012-13 fire season, only months after he was badly injured in a fuel reduction burn.

Polwarth is one of the few seats to have never had Labor representation.